What's Working Wednesday: Thank You Books

Today's "What's Working Wednesday" is a quick one but it has been incredibly helpful in our family.

At a shower before we got married all the ladies there were supposed to give me some advice. Some were silly, some were serious but one that stuck was from the principal of the school where my mom taught. She told me that we should get a journal and sit down together every night and write down things that we are thankful for from that day and pray and thank God together. We started doing this early in our marriage and have continued throughout our marriage, inviting the kids to join in as we had them. We have not "done thank yous" every night but we try to most nights and we now have almost 13 years worth of "Thank You Books" that are currently in the attic in a box. (In some places we've lived they've made it onto book shelves but we don't have enough book shelf space at the moment.) They are a treasure to us, a record of God's faithfulness and incredible generosity in big and little things over the years. They are fun to look back through to see what God has done and how the kids have changed. I think that having this as a regular practice has also helped the kids to be more grateful.

This is something easy to put into practice in your family even this week (as I am typing this, most likely, your kids are already in bed, at least mine are). All you have to do is grab a notebook (if you are like me you probably have several floating around unused) and gather as a family before bed and ask everyone what they are thankful for from the day. If we are out late we often ask the kids on the way home and scribble them on a piece of paper that we staple in our current book. Sometimes my kids do need a little coaxing to remember what we did during the day but each night we ask the kids to tell us at least 3 things they are thankful for from today. More often than not they have many more than that and their parents do too.

I am so thankful for this suggestion that has been such a wonderful part of who we are and what we do as a family. If you don't already do something like this I challenge you to start this week. Summer is a great time with so many fun experiences. You will be so glad you did!